Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Georgia on my Mind

Russell and I just wrapped up spending 2 weeks in Georgia, in and around the Augusta area, trying to spend time with his kids for the Christmas holidays.  We have spent a lot of time in the area since Russell lived here prior to moving to Nevada, so we didn’t do a lot of sightseeing during our stay.  It was more about just spending time together for Christmas.

The two weeks were VERY relaxing.  We stayed at a military campground near Fort Gordon, located on Clarke Hill Lake.  For nearly 2 weeks, we had our section of the campground to ourselves.  It was quiet and peaceful and a wonderful time to just relax, and even get some much needed crafting done.  The dogs loved their freedom, and in spite the rain and fog, we enjoyed our view of the lake while we were there.




We didn’t sit idle doing nothing every day though.  We did take a couple of day trips to places we wanted to see on our journey or go back to from previous visits.

One day trip we took was to Savannah and Tybee Island.  Savannah is about 3 hours from Augusta.  The city is very “southern” and it has been used to film a great number of movies, including the park bench scenes from Forrest Gump, one of my favorite movies.  It is also the home of one of my favorite celebrity chefs, Paula Deen.  On a previous trip to Savannah, we tried to go to her restaurant Our Lady and Sons for lunch, but the line was so long they told us we wouldn’t get seated until dinner time.  It was VERY popular.  This time however, we got lucky and were seated within about 45 minutes.  Russell and I ate their buffet, so we could try a little bit of everything.  My favorite was the Oxtails.  They were fall off the bone tender and delicious.  If we ever go back, I will just order those.  They were that good!


We also went to Tybee Island.  Tybee is just off the coast and is a cute beach town, complete with a lighthouse… very touristy, with tons of rental homes for summer vacationers.  We went down to the beach and walked a bit.  Major really wanted to go play in the ocean, but because the beach had a strict no pet policy, we didn’t want to let him off leash, even though he is a service dog.  I did take him in to get his paws wet though.  The water was cool, but not cold. 



On another day trip, we went to the Andersonville National Historic Site.  This was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the last year of the Civil War.  During the 12 months or so the prison was open; it held approximately 45,000 union soldiers, of whom nearly 13,000 died.  They have an excellent museum, which I highly recommend, and a National Cemetery on location as well.  It was a very humbling place to be.  Because the park is more than 500 acres, Russell and I opted to take the free audio car tour.  This was very informative.  We got out of the car a few times to explore the sight and see things up close.

Major was not a fan of being at Andersonville however.  You could tell there was something disturbing him as we walked around.  He was not focused and at one point he actually started growling and barking and what appeared to just be the wind.  He has never done this before.  I am not one to believe in ghosts; however, if there was a place where I believed they could exist, it would be there, where there had been mass graves of Union Soldiers, some of whom remain unknown to this day.


Now we are off to Florida for 3 weeks:  Jacksonville/St Augustine, the Everglades and Pensacola.  Say a prayer we don’t get eaten by alligators!  Have you ever been to any of these spots?  What was your favorite place?  Where would you recommend we go first?  Is there something you think we MUST see?  Let us know and we might just add it to our agenda!

Until next time and more miles behind us,
Roberta

The Traveling Crafter

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